The term refers to fraudulent e-mail sent by crooks to deceive consumers
into divulging their personal, financial or account information,
including account user name and password, credit card information
and Social Security number.

To help consumers combat what has become a sophisticated crime, the Consumer Federation of America and Visa Inc., have released education materials on phishing.

“There are many variations of phishing scams and new ones pop up every day,” said Susan Grant, director of Consumer Protection at the Consumer Federation. “If someone suddenly appeared at your door asking for your personal information, you’d be suspicious – and rightfully so. We want people to realize that it should be no different when someone approaches you online or by phone asking for that information.”

So guard your personal information zealously.

“Phishing scams are all too prevalent, and fraudsters are getting increasingly sophisticated at impersonating trusted organizations,” said Jennifer Fischer, head of Americas Payment System Security.

GameStop Corp.’s former corporate communications vice president Chris Olivera has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud after funneling almost $2 million of the retail chain’s money into his own bank account through a corporation he set up in Nevada.

According to a federal investigation, Olivera sent payments from GameStop to Cloud Communications LLC for nearly two years, from July 2009 through April 2011.

Olivera has agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud. That carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. A date for him to enter his plea before a judge has not yet been set.

Olivera allegedly mailed a check for $40,500 to Cloud Communications from GameStop in September 2009.

He made up his accomplice and named her “Jennifer Miller.” She served as his point contact at Cloud Communications and submitted invoices to GameStop.

Fraudulent invoices totaled $1,965,900.

I wonder if Jennifer wrote any press releases for Olivera?

Olivera was terminated last year, a GameStop spokeswoman said. She added that the company “has fully and completely cooperated with the government’s investigation.”

Many Texans have been dealing with economic hard times. Others are facing hard time for their fraudulent efforts to take advantage of the situation.

In 2011, state, federal and local law enforcement agencies prosecuted almost 100 people in Texas for unemployment scams, according to figures from the Texas Workforce Commission. Those efforts led to the recovery of $3.9 million through restitution orders, including more than $200,000 from two women in Cuero, a small town southeast of San Antonio, who had created a fake employer and used false identities to collect multiple unemployment checks.

At least 29 people were prosecuted in Dallas County during the period, according to TWC figures. The local prosecutions led to more than $105,000 in restitution returned to state coffers.

Most of the thefts in Texas were relatively small, mostly between $1,500 and $8,000.
Most of those prosecuted were ordered to pay restitution, a few hundred dollars in fines and court costs and then were given deferred adjudication rather than actual jail time.
The two women in Cuero, however, each got more than 20 months incarceration for their crimes.

Unemployment funds are raised from an assessment on employers’ payrolls and disbursements for their employees who are actually laid off.

“Preserving our employer-paid Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund for those who are legitimately due its benefits is a task we take very seriously,” TWC Chairman Tom Pauken said in a release Wednesday.

The TWC’s Regulatory Integrity Division is charged with detecting and preventing fraud waste and abuse and works with local law enforcement to prosecute offenders when they are found.